Contents

Six months after the Los Angeles sessions for King of America, Costello returned to the studio with the Attractions to work on the songs for this album.[3] Recording at Olympic Studios in London, several songs were re-workings from those earlier L.A. sessions, including "Blue Chair", "I Hope You're Happy Now", and "American Without Tears No. 2". An outtake from these sessions, a cover of the 1959 hit by Little Willie John "Leave My Kitten Alone", had also been an outtake for the Beatles during the sessions for Beatles for Sale. Blood & Chocolate was recorded in a single large room at high volume, with the band listening to each other on monitor speakers and playing at stage volume, an unusual practice in the studio for its time.[4] Costello reported the band's relationship as having 'soured', and after the album's completion and one more tour, Costello would not work again with the Attractions for another eight years until Brutal Youth.[5]

As on his previous album, Costello uses three different names to credit himself: his given name of Declan MacManus; his stage name of Elvis Costello; and the nickname Napoleon Dynamite, his alter ego as master of ceremonies for the Attractions' spinning songbook tour.[6] The name would later grace the title of the 2004 motion picture.

The tracks "Tokyo Storm Warning", "I Want You", and "Blue Chair" were all released as singles. The "Blue Chair" single was not the recording from the album, but an earlier one made with T-Bone Burnett during the King of America sessions with the Confederates band. "Tokyo Storm Warning" peaked at No. 73 on the UK Singles Chart but missed the Billboard Hot 100. The other two singles did not chart in either nation. Except for a compilation released in the UK, Out of Our Idiot, this album would be the final release on his Demon/Columbia contract, Costello signing with Warner Brothers for his next LP, Spike.

The album uses Esperanto to list musician credits and LP sides. The line in Tokyo Storm Warning "Japanese God-Jesus robots telling teenage fortunes" refers to a real toy made by Bandai.[7]

The album was released initially on vinyl in 1986, with the Rykodisc Records reissue arriving nine years later on a single CD with six bonus tracks, including the 1987 single version of "Blue Chair" recorded during the King of America sessions. A limited edition version of this release came with a bonus disc entitled An Overview Disc, consisting of an 80-minute interview with Peter Doggett, conducted on 21 July 1995, in which Costello and Doggett discuss his career and releases up to 1986. Five of the six Rykodisc bonus tracks, minus "A Town Called Nothing", along with ten others appeared as the second disc to the double-disc Rhino Records reissue in 2002. These reissues are out of print, the album reissued again by Universal Music Group after its acquisition of Costello's complete catalogue in 2006.